1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bulk material handling systems including conveyor belts supported on belt conveyor idlers and, more specifically, to an apparatus and system for enabling use of larger conveyor idlers.
2. Description of Related Art
In the overland transportation of bulk materials it has been found that the use of long stretches of conveyor are a cost efficient and reliable method of transporting materials from place to place. It is typical to see conveyor belt systems conveying, for example, materials from sand or gravel pits to processing stations and materials from coal stock piles to generation stations. Rather than utilizing trucks, rail cars, or lifts these long runs of conveyor belts provide low cost operation as well as set-up and positioning flexibility. It is known to utilize a plurality of idler support frames to support and partially form a flexible conveyor belt into a moving trough upon which sand, gravel, coal, grain and other bulk materials can be transported.
A conventional belt conveyor includes the metal support structure typically designed for supporting specific size belt conveyor idlers or rollers. The idlers are spaced longitudinally along conveyor frames to provide the trough-shaped upper run, and a horizontal return run for the belt. Generally, the belt is driven by one or more power rollers typically located at an end of the conveyor frame. As should be understood, the amount of material that can be delivered is a function of the size of the belt.
To increase material transport capacity the belt size must be increased to meet increasing transport requirements. A larger belt size requires the use of larger idlers greater clearance. Unfortunately, typical conveyor systems are designed and built to use a single idler size and not adaptable to enable use of larger idlers when its capacity limit is reached.
One approach to increase capacity is to simply replace the existing conveyor with a larger conveyor. It should be understood, this approach would be, at a great expense. Another answer is to take the existing conveyor out of service for extensive re-fabrication of the conveyor system to enable use of larger idlers, and belts. This approach is also very expensive and very time consuming. Though this approach might be less expense than replacing the existing conveyor with a new larger conveyor, circumstances often do not allow such a time consuming approach. It would be advantageous to enable use of larger idlers and belts without expensive re-fabrication and long down times.
The present invention achieves technical advantages as an apparatus for modifying a belt conveyor for enabling use of varying belt widths. Typical belt conveyors have long frames, an endless belt and a plurality of idler portions arranged to be spaced apart one from another lengthwise of the frame and coupled via frame mounting holes. The idler portions include upper idlers i.e. troughing idlers over which the upper run of the belt passes and lower idlers i.e return idlers over which the lower run of the belt passes in which each of the idlers has a width approximately equal to a width of the belt used. Additionally, the lower run of the belt is lengthwise typically inside a portion of the elongated frame The modifying apparatus includes a pair of first mounting feet having slots and coupled by a cross member, wherein the first mounting feet are coupled to the cross member enabling the slots to mate with holes predisposed on the frame, the apparatus further has second mounting feet having slots adapted to couple to a first upper idler and a first lower idler. The apparatus further has supports coupled to opposite ends of the cross member, wherein a first end of the supports is coupled to the cross member and a second end is coupled to the second mounting feet. The apparatus is further characterized in that the cross member has an selectable length such that larger idlers having greater widths can be coupled to the conveyor frame.